Garment fastener



Patented June 24, 1930 UNITED STATES FRANK M. MULRoNEY, F roar ponen, IOWA GARMENT FAST'ENER.

Application filed August 13, 1929. `Serial No. 385,510.

VThis invention relates to fastening devices such as may be used for holding garments closed and the general object of the invention is to provide a deviceof this character y which is very simple7 which may be easily applied and whereby the overlapping edges of garments or articles of various character may be held closedwith considerable force..

My invention consists broadly speaking in J[he provision of a vacuum cup on one margm of the lgarment or other article and a host or element applied to the other mar gin of the garment with which the guest or vacuum cup will engage by suction or the provision of one vacuum cup which `will act as a host7 and the other vacuum cup which will act as a guest as it may be termed, and which may be `applied tothe first named vacuum cup, these vacuum cups 2g' adhering to each other by suction in the usual manner.

A further Objectis to provide a device of this character wherein the host or receiving member is in the form of a depression having a depth approximately equal to the thickness of the cloth to which the device is to be applied and the coacting guest7 member is capable of being inserted within this depression and engaged with the host Figure 5 is a face view of the overlapping portions of-the garment showing my fastening device applied thereto;

F igure. 6 is a section on the line 6 6 of Figure;` i"

Figure 7 is asectienal View as in Figures 1 and 2 but. showing another form of garmentfastener; 4 t f Throughout this specification, I have used the term host member `and guest mem ber for the .two elements of my attaching means as being explanatory of thetact that one receives the other and the two'fare held together .bythe suction primar-ilyV of the* guest or detachably engaged member. As before stated, my invention consists broadly in providing a host or receiving member upon one marginof a garment or article and providing` a vacuum cupV upon the. other margin of the article adapted tobe pressed against the receiving member so .that thetwo margins vwill be engaged with: eachother by the atmospheric pressure exerted- `upon the vacuum'cup or cups.

In Figure 1, I illustrate a construction of thisrcharacter wherein: one margin of a garmentwhieh` is .designated A is provided withI a rubber Vvacuum! cup Vdesignated-10 t held at itscenterto themarginA as for instance'- the margin of; a Vpiece of vcloth orf other fabric by means of the malleable metal clips 11 passing through av washer 12, :the malleable clip extending through the body of the vacuum cup as at 13., Theother margin of the garment designatedB carries upon ita host or receiving'member-which,as illus--v trated in Figure-15` consists vofaxrigid fiat disk 14 attached bymalleable metalv clips 15k to the margin B of the garment, there beingv a washer 16 disposedbetween the clips` and the margin of. the garment. This member 14 has preferably a slightly raised rim and may have any desired form inplanTbut is preferably:r larger in area than theaarea of the vacuum cup- Thus this disk may be round or may be square or it may lbelongivstructed as described,

element may be made of metal, bone, bake-- tudinally extended so as to accommodate a plurality of these cups 10. Preferably the center of the disk 14 or guest element will be slightly depressed as at 17. It will be understood that in this form of the invention, the vacuum cup may be attached to the margin A by sewing, by vulcanizing, by metallic clips, or by any suitable means, this means, however, being preferably at the center of the vacuum cup as the margin of the vacuum cup must flex in order to properly engage the cu with the host7 member. The host mem er is preferably attached to the garment or other element B by devices which are disposed adjacent the margin of the guest member. The depression 17 at the central portion of the host member 14 will create a better vacuum area for the cups and a raised rim or edge at the disk 14 engages the extreme edges of the cup and centers the cup and thus prevents the cup from slipping off the rigid host 14.

In Figure 2, I have illustrated a host member which is rigid, but which combines L two or more materials, as for instance, a back plate, 18 and a relatively soft face 19. In other words, in this form of my invention, I combine two or more materials to form the host element and in lace of being contis form of lhost lite, 0I' other rigid material with an enameled, painted or varnished surface or a rubber surface.

In Figure 3, I illustrate another form of host in which the fabric C carries upon it a disk or host member 20, the middle ortion of which is depressed as at 21, this depression extending over a relatively large area, that is, an area slightly greater than that of the vacuum cup or guest, this depressed portion 21 having a. depth approximately equal to the thickness of the fabric C. The vacuum cup under these circum stances, is inserted Within this depressed portion or recess, this recess being large enough to permit the full depression ofy thevacuum vcup and the corresponding expansion'in area. The advantage of this construction is that it brings the two margins of the garment A and 'C more closely in conJunction with each other than is possible with the construction shown in Figure 2 or any other constructions which will be later described, as shown in Figure 4.

I do not wish to be limited to the means whereby this host element is secured in place upon the garment or article, but preferably a washer-like member 22 will be disposed around the cupshaped depression 2l and against the fabric and then the flange of the member 20 will be sewed, clipped, riveted or otherwise attached, thev attaching means passing through the washer 22 and through the fiat margin of the member 20.

In Figure 5, I have illustrated a construction wherein one margin D of the garment is provided with a host or receiving member 23 having the form of a more or less elongated strip attached to the garment as v by vulcanizing, sewing, riveting, clipping or otherwise, this strip 23 having either a perfectly plane face or a rubber coated face as desired and having sutlicient rigidity as to permit the vacuum cups 24 attached to the margin E of the garment to be applied against the receiving element or host7 23 and retained thereon by suction. Preferably, and in order that the vacuum cups 24 may be disposed in proper position upon the strip 23 t-o hold the garment properly and in proper alinement, I mark or otherwise indicate upon the strip 23 colored rings 25 yso that the wearer will know where the vacuum cups 24 should be indicated upon the member v23. This member 23 might be on raincoats, slickers and the like of relatively heavy rubber or of leather and in some garments, this might be a -metallic stripv host may be in the form of a strip `more or less rigid upon which a plurality of vacuum cups may engage.

In Figure 7, I have illustrated another embodiment of my inventionwhich is particularly good as a'means for holding the overlapping margins of raincoats and the like closed and may be used in other situations, in which Ithe receiving element or host consists not of a flat disk or strip, but of a vacuum cup designated 26a and the guest element also consists of a v-acuum cup 26, this being attached tn the margins A and B of the garment in any suitable manner.

In this case, these cups are attached to the garment at their centers, leaving the edges of the disks free to be pressed. against each other and forni an air-tight contact. The principal advantage of this form ofi, attachment'lies in the fact that both comple-k mentary members are soft and iiexible. In certain types of garments, as for instance, infants wear and some types of ladies apparel, this softness would be of distinct advantage. In fact two rubber vacuum cups designed to act as host and guest respectively. could be used effectively in all cases where their softness would be an advantage and their bulk of thickness not be of disadvantage. In this type, the vacuum cup 25 or receptork is preferably larger than the element 26 in order to facilitate this engagement.

IVhile I have before referred vto the garment as having distinct host members or Cir receptors .attached to the garment either in the form of strips, cups, disks or vacuum cups, I do not wish to be limited to this as some garments do not need these semi-rigid hosts or receptors, as for instance in articles or garments which are lcomposed of heavy rubber composition and which have sufficient body and smooth surfaces, as for instance a belt or eXtra heavy rubber raincoat. Vacuum cups could be placed on the inner side of the overlapping portion and the garment fastened by forcing the vacuum cups against the surface of the other margin, that is, just any place on the surface wherever theflap happened to fall. When used in this manner, there is a distinct advantage of fit as the wearer can fasten the garment to what-ever degree of it is desired, either loose or tight.

In the case of a belt of heavy material with a smooth surface, the two ends of the belt could be engaged with each other by means of a vacuum cup or cups and a proper fitor tension could be obtained without punching any holes in the belt or otherwise mutilating it.v

In my invention, there is always a certain amount of space taken up by the thick, ness of the two members in fastened position. In -order that the two surfaces of the closed garment maybe brought as closely together as possible, this thickness must be reduced to an absolute minimum. The greater stress on the guest element or suction cup is close to or at the central portion. This being the case, it is necessary to attach the guest element at or near its central portion, while with the receptoror host element, the greater stress is approximately at its rim. Therefore, the host is preferably attached to the garment at or slightly inward of its rim or edge. In this manner, the host element is heldndown tightly to the surface to which it is attached, which makes for the greatest possible thinness and brings the two surfaces of the overlapping portions in close proximity to each other.

Few, if any, garments have sufficient body in the material from which they are made to furnish a proper seat for a vacuum cup and I have discovered, therefore, that it is necessary in nearly all garments to provide a seat which will have sufiicient rigidity or semi-rigidity to act as a host or receiver for the vacuum cup itself. Where disks are used as receivers or hosts, they can be either vulcanized or sewed on to the garment. In garments which are made of fabric, as for instance, sweaters or cloth raincoats the method of attaching these disks would be by sewing a thin rubber disk directly on to the garment and then vulcanizing a second disk on top of the one which is sewed to the garment,

This ,would seal up. any-holes which the sewing would cause. In-thevcase of articles made of rubber compositionas for instance, a relatively cheap traveling bag.the1na terial used in the bag would be of the proper consistency to constitutea host but where the leather or composition-wasgiven a grain, that portion which would receive the vacuum cup-zwouldof necessity .be left smooth. yIn-addition to furnishing a satis-` factory area for the guest cups toadhere to, the host member of my fastener designates or rather positions the point -to which the guest or cup is to be fastened. In this manner, the garment is to be fastened in proper alinement It will be seen that my invention furnishes a new type of garment fastener, adaptable to nearly all garments, and has certain distinctive advantages over anything now in use.

The rubber suction cups have been found by actual trial and tests to retain their suctive action even when live years old and I have found that when a proper host member is provided for the suction cup to adhere to, that the cup will stay in fixed position against the host member practically indefinitely and that they will support a more or less constant strain forI a long time. A proper host member is absolutely necessary as the vacuum cup cannot function properly and effectively in a situation illsuited to it.

I claim l. An article having overlapping portions, and means for holding the overlapping portions closed including a vacuum cup on one of said portions anda receiving member attached to the other portion and adapted to receive and afford a surface against which the vacuum cup will engage by suction.

2. An article having overlapping portions, a vacuum cup attached to the outermost of said Vportions and a receiving member attached to the confronting face of the other portion and adapted to receive the vacuum cup and having a surface against which the vacuum cup will engage and hold, said surface being larger than the vacuum cup.

3. The combination with overlapping portions of a flexible article, of a vacuum cupy attached to one of said portions, and a relatively rigid receiving member attached to the other of said portions and having a surface with which the vacuum cup will engage, the receiving member being larger than the vacuum cup.

4. An article of apparel having two overlapping margins, means for holding said margins detachably closed comprising a vacuum cup mounted upon the inner face ofone margin and a receiving member attached to the inner face of the other margin, the receiving member having a depressed oenter within which the vacuum cup is received, the depressionY extending through the material of Ithe article and sai-cl receiving member having a depth approximately equal to the thickness of the material. Y

5. An article of apparel having overlapping margins, and means for holding lthe margins closed comprising a vacuum cup attached to one of said margins and a receiving member attached to the other margin vWith which the cup is adapted to have suctive engagement7 the receiving member being larger than the diameter of the cup.

' In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

FRANK M. MULRONEY. 

